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Thursday, 11 August 2016

POWERLESS PEOPLE’ S PARLIAMENT

The
Sibaya ”People’s Parliament,” where Swaziland’s absolute monarch summons his
subjects to the royal cattle byre to discuss pressing issues, was held over the
last week. Many issues were raised, but in previous years little has
happened as a result of it, writes Kenworthy
News Media.

“Raise
grants for the elderly”. “Stop repossessing our land in Vuvulane”. “My kids go
to bed hungry”. “Ordinary people don’t have access to radio”. “Minimum
wage should by 3000 emalangeni”. “We have no land, even though the constitution
says every Swazi should have access to it”. “Cattle roam the streets and are
causing accidents”. “The cabinet should be fired”. “Inequality causes
division”.

A multitude
of issues were taken up at this year’s Sibaya People’s Parliament, an event
that according to Swaziland’s constitution is “the highest policy and advisory
council” that is meant to enable “the views of the nation on pressing and
controversial issues” to be heard.

But one
of the problems with Sibaya, as can be seen in the quotes above, is the
fragmented nature of the political and social discussions. That there is no
direction or common agenda, and any true and structured discussion on political
change in the absolute monarchy is drowned in a sea of complaints that might be
relevant for the person voicing them, but do not really touch upon the root of
the problem, namely that Swaziland is ruled by and for a small royal elite.

Another
important matter is that much of the criticism at this year’s Sibaya, while
criticizing the Prime Minister and the cabinet who are all appointed by the
king, fell short of criticizing King Mswati who, as an absolute monarch with
the final say on all matters, actually has the power to change things.

And even
when people get to the root of the problem at Sibaya, such as when Dukanezwe
Dlamini dared stand up and tell King Mswati that he should allow multiparty
elections to be discussed at the “People’s Parliament” so that Swazis could
“deal with the issue once and for all and let the nation decide on whether they
want parties or not”, nothing really comes of it.

At the
2012 Sibaya, ordinary Swazis also called for the introduction of multi-party
elections in Swaziland and for firing Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini,
none of which happened.

But as
Afro-American politician, abolitionist and escaped slave Frederick Douglass
pointed out in 1857, “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and
it never will,” a sentiment shared by President of the banned Swaziland Youth
Congress, Bheki Dlamini, who does not believe that Sibaya or the people’s
parliament can bring about real change.

“Sibaya
is a fruitless exercise meant to deceive the gullible masses and the sceptical
international community to believe that there is some semblance of democracy in
Swaziland, yet there is none. As Swazis we want real change and this change can
only be started in an all-inclusive political process, a national convention
with clear terms of reference. The levelling of the political field, which
includes unbanning political parties and allowing political exiles to return
home, is paramount in the transition process. Mswati must stop fooling us. His
dictatorship is too obvious for us not to see it.”